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Shade takes advantage of costly NBC mistakes

CAIRNBROOK – Northern Bedford had two early turnovers Saturday night against Shade, but its defense was able to keep Shade off the scoreboard. However, a miscue by its defense set up the first Shade touchdown just before halftime.

An offside penalty when Shade was forced to punt gave the Panthers a first down and new life. Shade capitalized on the opportunity, scoring a touchdown just before the half. The Panthers added a second-half touchdown on a fourth down run to defeat the Black Panthers, 15-0, in the first round of the District 5 Class A playoffs.

“That really, really hurt us,” Northern Bedford coach Jeff Batzel said of the offsides penalty. “It seemed like we had stopped them. I told the kids, the big difference is I thought we made more mistakes than they did.”

The offsides penalty gave Shade a first down near midfield late in the first half. The Panthers converted another first down on a Ted Dunagan run and called timeout with 1:18 left in the half. Two plays later, Dunagan rumbled for 18 yards to give Shade a first down at the 19. On the next play, quarterback Preston Boncoski lofted a pass that looked like NB would intercept. However, the pass went just over the outstretched fingers of a Black Panthers defender and into the arms of Logan Glessner who ran into the end zone for a touchdown. David Felix added the extra point to give Shade a 7-0 lead with 33 seconds left in the first half. Shade took the seven-point margin into the locker room at halftime.

“That was enormous,” Shade coach Don Fyfe said of the offsides penalty. “For 23 minutes of the first half I don’t know who those guys were. That’s what I told them at halftime. That wasn’t the guys I know. They were a little bit in awe of the whole moment, the first playoff game here. They were just uptight until that offside penalty. That was the turning point.”

Despite the late first half touchdown, the play of the Black Panthers defense kept Northern Bedford in the game in the first half. Northern Bedford turned the ball over on its first two possessions of the game. Corey Mains intercepted a Jacob Dasher pass on the second play of the game to set up Shade in Black Panthers territory. However, the Northern Bedford defense rose up and stopped Shade on downs. Austin Heck fumbled on its next possession, once again giving Shade the ball with a short field. However, the Northern Bedford defense stopped Shade again, forcing a punt.

Northern Bedford’s best drive of the first half came late on its ensuing possession. After the Shade punt, Northern Bedford marched the ball 44 yards in eight plays. Heck carried the ball six of the eight plays, running for 20 yards. The big play of the drive was a 20-yard pass from Batzel to Dasher. However, Northern Bedford was forced to punt. The punt pinned Shade at its 5-yard line.

Northern Bedford did the job defensively, stopping Shade once again. It almost took the momentum, as it nearly recovered a fumble at the Panthers 7-yard line on third down. Northern Bedford did not come up with the fumble, but did force a punt. Unfortunately for NBC, it couldn’t do anything with the field position.

Shade added a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach. The Panthers faced a fourth-and-3 at the Northern Bedford 35-yard line. Glessner took a handoff and ran to the left, made a cutback and ran untouched for the score. Glessner ran in the two-point conversion to push Shade’s lead to 15-0.

Northern Bedford’s best chance in the second half came on its next possession. A 15 yard penalty on Shade assessed on the kickoff and a long kickoff return set up the Black Panthers at the Shade 42-yard line. However, the drive ended when Batzel’s pass to Dasher on fourth down came up one yard short, turning the ball over on downs to Shade.

Northern Bedford finished the night with only seven first downs, and 140 total yards. Heck led the Black Panthers in rushing, with 68 yards on 22 carries. The loss sets Northern Bedford’s record at 5-6. After a 3-2 start, it lost four of its final six games.

“These kids always gave great effort for us,” Batzel said. “Obviously we would still like to be playing next week, but being realistic, we knew we were a .500 give or take a game kind of a team, and that’s where we’re out. I thanked the seniors for their outstanding three years of effort. They have been a great group. They have listened and worked hard.”

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Northern Bedford0 0 0 0 – 0

Shade0 7 0 8 – 15

Second quarter

S-Glessner 19 pass from Boncoski (Felix kick), :33.

Fourth quarter

S-Glessner 35 run (Glessner run), 11:52.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Northern Bedford-Heck 22-68, Brallier 2-21, McCue 2-7, Hershberger 3-4, Dasher 1-4. Shade-Glessner 11-104, Dunagan 17-83, Napora 6-30, Boncoski 5-5, Blackburn 7-3.

PASSING: Northern Bedford-Batzel 4-6-0-36, Dasher 0-1-1-0, Heck 0-1-0-0. Shade-Boncoski 4-6-0-33.

RECEIVING: Northern Bedford-Dasher 4-36. Shade-Glessner 1-18, Blackburn 2-10, Manges 1-5.

INTERCEPTIONS: Northern Bedford-none. Shade-Mains.

TEAM STATISTICSNBSFirst downs79

Rushes-yards30-10446-225

Passing (comp.-att.-int.)4-8-14-6-0

Yards passing3633

Total yards140258

Fumbles-lost3-21-0

Penalties-yards4-309-80

Punts-avg.3-34.04-36.8

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